Stiletto Ace Combo Review

[Guitarzan]

OK! I finally played the new Ace! First off, the amp looks very cool in person! The Green with the Tan appointments is stunning, it almost reminded me of a Ralph Lauren Polo commercial or something like that. Never the less on to the goods...

First I noticed that the Main power switch has the Bold/Spongy feature built in, You have to flip through the OFF position to get to either, this is my only ***** about it.

Guitar: LP Standard straight to amp.

The clean "channel one" is very nice almost sounded like a LSC, with a bit more tube break up. EQ was nice, the presence really changes the charachteristics of the tone. Clean channel Tite is focused not as hi-fi as the clean setting, almost boxy...if that makes sense. Pushed Clean is very bluesbreaker-ish. It's much louder than the other modes so if you have the gain up for the clean, back it off about half way. The volume really jumps up! Not bad and the sound opens up again the boxy is gone.

Channel two The crunch takes up where the pushed on channel one leaves off. In Channel two the EQ is very sensitive! BRIGHT!!!! REAL BRIGHT!!! I had to back off the treb to about 11 o'clock and presence to about 12'o. Tite has a real cool AC/DC vibe for the crunch! This is the magic of the amp right here. Both channels have independant tube/diode rec settings so here is a great place to try the two and compare. Fluid Drive has a bit of the typical Mesa fuzzy bottom, I suspect that most of you out there will do a tube swap and this feature will clear up well. Again this mode is louder than the previous two settings, so back off the Vol. The chords sounded slightly muddy but soloing, the notes sustained with great Slash/Gary Moore-esque singing tones. Again a great place to try the recto selections.

Most of the features are on front of the amp making it user friendly, the only thing on the back is the loop, slave send, speaker outs and that is it.

Overall I liked this amp It is very different from the Series 1. I would like to hear it through a 4X12 cab just to get the full effect but the 2X12 did great! It's a very LOUD 50W's I'll try to run it through other cabs this week and let you all in on my findings.

Let me know if this was helpful.

 

[jackieTHEjokeman]

I can't wait to try it. I'm dying to know how it stacks up to my HW moded Stiletto.

 

[Guitarzan]

I think you'll like it! I'm thinking of ditching my JCM2K DSL for an Ace head.

 

[Guitarzan]

OK...I finally had a chance to plug in an external cab (1960 Lead 75W Celestions)...WOW!!! I had Marshall folks drooling. There is a JCM 800 in the store as well and we a-b'd the thing with the ACE and hands down the ACE Handed the Marshall its *** back. This Amps sounds great with just a bare meat and potatoes guitar to amp setup. Strats especially sounded chimey and musical as well as Les Pauls. This is not a "Tune your guitar to "Q" amp" so the nu metallers will pass this by quickly. If you looking for a JTM 45 to JCM 800 era Marshall, you'll love the Ace. Hopefully the Deuce and Trident will have the same voicings!

 

[picnic]

Looks like the Ace fits right between the LSC and The LSS.. I think it might take some sales from the LSS.

 

[tunefisher]

I also had the pleasure of trying the Ace this week. I thought it had more British crunch than the F or Mark Series - or even the LS's. The clean reminded me of an AC 30. Very acceptable, albeit somewhat nondescript (this is not necessarily a bad thing).

One complaint I would have is the lack of reverb. A combo should have reverb. I called Boogie a few weeks ago to find out when they would be shipping and took the opportunity to ask why no tank on it. They said it was because the Stiletto heads don't have it. They also said a version with reverb would not appear anytime in the next two years. So if you want an all in one amp, here it is but you still have to carry a pedal for reverb!

All in all I am a little disappointed & still looking for my holy grail amp. The closest so far are the LS and Koch. My Studio IIc+ is a delight but not loud enough for unmiked club gigs. I am considering having another look at a Mark IV - but every Mark series I have tried seems kinda fuzzy-buzzy and lacking crunch. I know this might be heresy on a Boogie forum, but that's the way they sound to me.

Bottom line, if you want hear hear crunchy chords - you gotta try the Ace. If you want play some sweet lush clean twang, either get a pedal to go with it or keep looking.

 

[Russ]

I am considering having another look at a Mark IV - but every Mark series I have tried seems kinda fuzzy-buzzy and lacking crunch. I know this might be heresy on a Boogie forum, but that's the way they sound to me.

Bottom line, if you want hear hear crunchy chords - you gotta try the Ace. If you want play some sweet lush clean twang, either get a pedal to go with it or keep looking.

You must not know how to dial in a Mark IV then. At first I got fuzzy and buzzy too but after a little knob turning and not treating it like a Marshall I figured it out. I think the Rectos are fuzzy and buzzy but then again I don't play those either. I would like to because of the deeper bottom but I just haven't had the time to mess with those enough yet. I am sure I could in time make them not seem so also. I am quite pleased with my Mark IV and its crunch and clarity thereof. It really does crunch tightly. There are differing opinions on which series is better but from my experience the Mark IV is the most versatile while maintaining tight crunch and actually gets pretty gainy if you dial it in that way. Also you need to get it up to volume with good settings before you make any decisions on this amp.

I haven't played any of the stilettos yet, but I play a Mesa to get the Mesa sound. I have Marshalls to get my Marshall sounds. I just can't see how a Mesa can make a better Marshall sound and vice versa. I find that you pretty much have to have a little of everything to be versatile. That is why I even got my Mark IV. I figure it can assimilate the Mark Series sounds that made Mesa and then later I will get a Recto to deal with the rectified sound. In the meantime, I am working on getting a Mesa cabinet. I'll admit that I haven't been using a Fender to get cleans lately but there again I haven't been playing much cleans so I'd rather get more guitars or high/moderate high gain amps for color.

To be honest though, I must reiterate that I can't see a Mesa getting better Marshall sounds than a JTM/JMP/800 at full tilt can. I'll give you guys the 900 and 2000 as those designs are far from where real Marshalls get their tone. I would gladly a/b either my 77 2204 or my 88 2210 against a Stiletto to see who gets their *** handed to them. I am pretty sure the 2204 would win for tone and the 2210 would win for 80's style gain. I find that my Ampeg VL is surprising at times too but I wouldn't say that it accels at dominating any one class either, it is just feature packed.

I am sure that the stiletto does what it was designed to do and more than likely performs well within the arena for which it was designed however like any other amp it is probable that it will accel in a certain tone and gain range. It will however always be Mesa voiced. Mesa would not design an amp that sounds exactly like a competitors amp as other manufacturers would not either. There is no validity there and when everyone sounds the same why bother getting one or the other? Look at all the amps that tried to sound like a different amp over the years. Most of the companies have since abandoned the quest to make their amp sound like a this or that or a hotrodded this or that. Even Mesa has gone away from making hot-rodded Fenders. Marshall did that a long time ago and only really ruined their designs trying to compete with the gainy Mesa's. That was the reason the 900 approach disappeared. The 2000 is a return to the search for tone as opposed to trying to further gainify an amp. Yes there is a ton of gain in the 2000 but there is tone too if you dial it in where the 900 had terrible tone.

I think Marshall is doing it right now in reissueing some classic designs. They will probably not be able to find a unique voicing for a new design for a while. Even Mesa's attempt to find a place for new amp designs seems to be a little lacking in creativity. These manufacturers need to remember their place and quit trying to step on each other's toes. It does nothing for anyone except sell a few more amps and create GAS. I will admit if Marshall had amps that could do convincing Mesa sounds I would have probably looked at them. In the long run I would have still bought the Mesa though because I know to truly get the tone you need to have the amp that makes that tone. That is why I don't believe in the preamps and power amps everyone builds. They always seem a little too synthetic when trying to nail a tone or gain level. The Recto series rack gear may change my mind though as Mesa claims it was designed to specifically work together to make a rectifier in components. I would still reather just get a DR 2 channel or TR 3 channel though.

I know my posts tend to get long so I'm sorry if this got that way.
How do you guys keep the posts short but still say everything you have to say?

 

[Guitarzan]

Le Bump 8)